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About Those Pencils

Did you know that pencils don’t contain lead? I sure didn’t. A few weeks back a colleague received a phone call from the nurse at her son’s school. There had been an incident that perhaps involved a pencil being poked into a palm. Panic! Lead poisoning? My colleague rushed to the school. Fortunately, no pencil was involved and her son was fine. Come to find out the stuff we call pencil lead is actually just a mixture of clay and graphite. Who knew? My tiny bit of research revealed that lead has never been used in pencils, however at one time the paint on pencils did contain lead. Interesting!

Since I’m rambling on about pencils, I may as well share a bit of pencil trivia that I discovered:

Pencil supply is okay, so far. Some kids brought 75 or so at the beginning of the year! Some, welllll, just enough to get by. I haven’t liked mechanical pencils, personally, until I discovered the newer ones last year that look like pens or the ones that are “fatter”. They work really well, and I prefer to write/take notes in pencil rather than ink now.

I teach Kindergarten. I LOVE the first pencils from Ticonderoga. They last the whole year with most students. I buy the ones without erasers. I ask the students to put an “X” on their mistakes rather than erasing because the children will tend to erase EVERYTHING rather than the one letter/number they did incorrectly. I always say it’s ok to make a mistake, we are practicing, that is how we learn.

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AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: DIANE BADDEN

Diane Badden is a former Mailbox classroom teacher. In her current role as Editor at Large, she shares her insights, knowledge, and enthusiasm for teaching and learning. She’s also the go-to-gal for chocolate!

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: KIM BRUGGER

Kimberly Brugger is a former early childhood teacher and managing editor of The Mailbox® Preschool magazine. As such, she can often be found in her office humming “The Farmer in the Dell” while slinging fingerpaint with crazy enthusiasm.

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: KAREN BRUDNAK

Karen is the Managing Editor of Learning Magazine. One of the best parts of her job is getting to play with the many wonderful products available for teachers. She regularly remarks, "Gosh, I wish this had been available when I was in elementary school!" Karen has been with Learning Magazine for more than 15 years.